


Dirt In Your Cleats

by Ottsky



Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Core Mechanics (Blaseball Team), Gen, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Doubt, Survivor Guilt, The Existential Horror of Blaseball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 14:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30107460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ottsky/pseuds/Ottsky
Summary: The Core Mechanics have had a rough time of it, to put it mildly. But everyone keeps showing up to the field, at the end of the day. So here's a piece about the ways that people feel hurt when they're alone.And a reminder that you don't have to hurt alone.
Kudos: 2





	Dirt In Your Cleats

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Core Mechanics Fanbase](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Core+Mechanics+Fanbase).



Zoey is stressed. 

This isn’t really how vi wanted vir first season back to go. Getting pulled into the lineup from the shadows after being stuck in them for the entirety of the Core’s attempt at the Big Leagues.

Until they’d been relegated, and then it was revealed that some or another choice had been made to keep relegated teams locked up tight, just waiting for something to happen.

And then the flood-down. A return to the ILB. It looked, different, yet the same. The same haunted expressions and spiteful hope drew itself across every player, the knowing understanding that things happened, losses were had, and they hurt, taking a chunk from you each time.

That was what made Core strong, though. Remembering the old saying, “One is the weakest number, but the more Ones you add together, the stronger they become.” 

The idea that you didn’t have to fix the trauma immediately. You had others to lean on, to let you take weight off the wound and work through it when you had moments to breathe. 

All the hands in the world to support you didn’t give Ruffian or Hands back. Didn’t undo the Feedback that took Lizzy away, or the Stray letter that landed on Jasper B’s Desk: “Pack your bags, your contract’s been terminated.”

Zoey couldn’t get the damn splotch of darkened dirt off vir cleat.

* * *

Torus is stressed.

Everything says it should be doing better than this. All of the staticians and forecasters had pegged it for an unremarkable, but competent pitcher, who would stand quietly along the insanely powerful abilities of Polkadot Patterson, or the capable hands of Mindy Kugel, or the fiery throws of Zoey Kirchner.

These things were wrong, and it couldn’t explain why. It kept throwing easy balls, it couldn’t figure out  _ why _ though. Every time it was up to go, it just.

Froze.

Like it could feel the weight of everything inside of it. The fact that it was doing it’s own thing, and had to make it’s choices by itself… It would throw a clean ball, easy over the plate. And then the batter would connect, and it’d go clean towards the spot between second and third, bounce once, and then end up in the outfield.

It felt broken, and it couldn’t thumb why. It should be better.

What is it doing wrong that’s making it so bad?

Torus couldn’t get the damn chunk of dirt out of it’s field grousers.

* * *

Bottles is stressed.

Another stress crack while cooling off a piece. This was supposed to be a way to relax after games, not a way to get progressively more upset at each tiny mistake. Their hands shake a little bit, and they sigh, and have to step away, toss the broken piece back into the pile to be recycled. 

Thoughts wander back to blaseball, as they often did. A quiet sigh, mumbling as they thought through another game. They didn’t like how their legs felt like so much lead when running bases. Everything felt like it got too damn fast when they suddenly had to go from swinging to running. It wasn’t a fluke, either. They just felt sluggish. Lady seemed to have it down to a science. Hells, they knew that it was their stress speaking, but it felt like  **everyone** knew how to run a base better than her.

They thumbed over their hands, pulled off a shoe, and shook at it, slapping the heel of it and grumbling. They still had dirt in their damn shoe.

* * *

The call went out, through the pipes. [Cars and Coffee] was the tap, but it really just meant “A place to drink coffee and show off whatever project you’d been working on. The shorthand had just stuck from back when the Car folks had used it as their usual call. The tap that came after was simple. [Team.]

Bottles got up from their seat.

Zoey got out of vir bed.

Torus sighed, and got off it’s workbench.

Each of them quietly headed towards the usual meeting spot, the player’s clubhouse, collecting a piece of something or another - 

Zoey: A Bat, that vi’d slipped Ruffian’s coin into. Vi had carefully made it to resonate with the trench - A way to reach out to a friend.

Bottles: A solid glass base, intended for the pitcher’s mound. The whorls of White and Gold and Orange were immaculate, even when smudged with clay from the field.

Torus: A new pitching “arm,” this one a cannon that had wheels along it’s length to let it impart the spins required for curveballs. And a special function to let it throw the perfect knuckleball, without an ounce of spin imparted.

* * *

Everyone was there, as always. Smiles, patted backs and wide grins, deep affection for friends and colleagues and fellow survivors. No one would ever complain about getting to spend time with friends. Everyone cooed over each other’s designs, admiring new dresses and emotional, raw pieces of music. Everyone had that space to care for each other, lean on each other, love each other in the way that only those who were bound by fates and cruel reality could.

The dirt stuck, still. But it was easier to ignore.

**Author's Note:**

> So we've been really enjoying blaseball again, especially because the Core Mechanics are just a space where I feel like I can pour a lot of myself out and really indulge. This one goes out to @CoreKirchner for helping we, unintentionally, coalesce an idea of Zoey's personality.
> 
> Also, as always, deep love and respect to the rest of the Core Mechanics Fanbase. 
> 
> Gear up, Core down.


End file.
